Hypocrisy and deceit have now become part of the idiosyncrasies of President John Dramani Mahama in his dealings with the good people of Ghana who gave him the mandate to manage the affairs of the country on their behalf.

In President Mahama, we have a leader who says one thing and turns round to do the contrary. In effect, he can be described as a preacher of pulpit virtues but practitioner of street vices.

The decision by the president to grant pardon to his surrogates, the 'Montie 3', for the rest of their jail terms, after being sentenced to four months imprisonment each, following their conviction for criminal contempt, has received wide-ranging condemnation from many well-meaning Ghanaians.

For us at the Daily Statesman, like many Ghanaians, the news of the pardon did not come as a surprise. Knowing him for who he is, we were not at surprised that the president chose to place his partisan interest above the collective national interest to ensure decency in national discourse, as well as national cohesion.

'Mugabe' Maase, host of Montie FM's 'Pampaso' show, had been telling the whole world that he had left his family in London to stay in Ghana, to work for the re-election of President Mahama. And it was clear the assignment he had been given was to spearhead unprovoked verbal assaults on anyone whose actions were not favourable to the president, even though legal.

He and his colleagues were therefore working for President Mahama when they subjected the Chief Justice and other justices of the Supreme Court to their vile attacks and threats of death and rape.

The president therefore engineered all the processes that led to their eventual granting of pardon. And the reason was simple: that decision furthers his partisan agenda.

By this reckless act of the president, he is simply telling members of the NDC to employ any foul means they can think of to advance his re-election bid, with the assurance that he will do everything possible to protect them.

We agree with the many well-meaning Ghanaians who are deeply worried about the fact that the president has done a major disservice to the country with his reckless decision because it will certainly open the floodgates for more insults in the nation's political discourse, whilst at the same time encouraging others to go about threatening anybody with death.

But in all these, what we find very sickening and nauseating is how the president, after setting the country on this dangerous path, can turn round "to remind all Ghanaians of the need to respect the institutions of State and exercise freedom of speech responsibly mindful of the need to preserve peace and national unity. "This is certainly hypocrisy of the highest order, and we least expect it from a president.

You spit in the face, and lower the authority, of the highest court of the land that is the final arbiter in all judicial matters and turns round to urge the people to respect institutions of State and be responsible in the exercise of their freedom of speech. What kind of sickening hypocrisy is this?